The Recursive Diamond

The Recursive Diamond. The link is to the Internet documentation of this bidding system. The Recursive Diamond is a bidding system devised by Mr. Jason Woolever, Mr. Qixiang Sun, Mr. Adam Meyerson, and Mr. Greg Humphreys .

As stated by the authors:

This system provides many ways to describe distributional hands, letting partnerships reach (and stay out of) games and slams that are difficult or impossible to reach using standard methods. All opening bids except 1 are limited, allowing opener and responder to focus entirely on shape and controls.

(Note: Mr. Qixiang Sun is depicted in the first photograph; Mr. Adam Meyerson is depicted in the second photograph, and Mr. Greg Humphreys is depicted in the third photograph.) The attempt to find a photograph of Mr. Jason Woolever was in vain. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Geneology of The Recursive Diamond. This documentation of The Recursive Diamond was achieved by university students, who were studying towards their degree, but also at the same time attempting to devise a bidding system. Since 1999 these university students have moved forward and some have maintained and improved their bridge skills and have also won bridge events sponsored by authoritative bodies especially for the Junior bridge player and for university students.

Jason Woolever (1999)						Synopsis
	Larry Gariepy (2000)					Northrop Grumman
Qixiang Sun (1999)						Stanford
	Adam Meyerson (2000)					UCLA
		Greg Humphreys (2001)				CMU
		Charlie Garrod (2002)				CMU
			Brian Bailey			?
			Noble Shore (2003)			UVA
				Mike Gill (2004)		U of Maryland
		Li-Chung Chen (2003)				UC Berkeley
	Theodore Hwa (2002					(Seattle?)
		David Kempe (2003)				UW -> USC
			Hayri Kuterdem (2003)			(Seattle?)
	Samuel Ieong (2003)					Stanford

Introduction by Authors

Most balanced hands with five card majors and some hands with six card minors are treated the same as balanced no trump hands. Thus, opening 1 or 1 suggests either a six card (or longer) suit or shortness in a side suit. To accommodate the wider variety of no trump hands, low information puppet stayman is used over all no trump bids (except 1C-1NT game forcing sequences).

Opening 1-bids (except 1) show 18-24 combined HCPs and the lengths of the two longest suits, discounting unprotected honors. They may be opened with as few as 9 HCP (5 in theory, but disallowed by the ACBL). 1 shows any hand with 25+ with the opener intending to rebid to show the equivalent opening bid or 2 to show a powerhouse (30+ combined), hence the name of the system.

Opening Bids are as follows. Note that 1/2 is either 1st and 2nd Seat; 3/4 is either 3rd and 4th Seat.

1 :	1/2 NV: 13-15 balanced (possibly with 5-card Minor or 6-card Minor), or
	1/2 Vul or 3/4: 15-16 balanced (possibly with 5-card Major or 6-card Minor), or
	11-16 ,three-suited hand (w/o 5-card Major), or
	12-14, 5-5 or better in Minors
1 :	16/17+ balanced, or (14)16+ unbalanced (rule of 25)
1 :	9-15, 5+-carder, not 5-3-3-2 shape
1 :	9-15, 5+-carder, not 5-3-3-2 shape
1 NT:	1/2 NV: 10-12 balanced, possibly with 5-card Major or 6-card Minor, or
	Vul or 3/4: 12-14 balanced, possibly with 5-card Major or 6-card Minor
2 :	10-15, 6+-carder
2 :	10-15, 6+-carder
2 :	Weak
2 :	Weak
2 NT:	8-11 with both minors (equal vulnerability)
3 NT:	Gambling

The bridge student is encouraged, by additional interest, to review the information on the link provided above on the website of Mr. Qixiang Sun of Stanford University of Stanford, California, United States.

This information has also only been archived and preserved on this site in .pdf file format for future reference. See also: Mellon Diamond.

If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.

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